


leap from the remarkable now

by starblessed



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friendship, Gen, Modern Era, References to Past Lives, author's dubious knowledge of actual southern culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25846957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starblessed/pseuds/starblessed
Summary: Gene visits his old medical school friend in Philadelphia, and is left with the sense that he missed out on another life.
Relationships: Eugene Roe & Ralph Spina
Kudos: 11





	leap from the remarkable now

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, the characters in this fic are based off of their fictional portrayals from the miniseries Band of Brothers, and I mean no disrespect to the real-life veterans!
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [himbowelsh](http://himbowelsh.tumblr.com/)!

When Spina laughs, he sounds like a goddamn hyena, and Eugene’s not sure how he’s supposed to feel about it.

“Wait, wait — I’m sorry, okay, gimme a minute —“

Eugene taps his toes and waits.

“It’s just — _ooh,_ Jesus Christ —“ he has to stop to wipe away tears, clutching his stomach like it’s gonna leap off his body and tap dance away. “You really mean to tell me you’ve seen alligators, you’ve seen bears, you’ve seen a goddamn lynx… but you never been to the zoo?”

“Ain’t got one in our town,” Gene shrugs, gaze wandering out the window. When Spina doesn’t quit starting at him: “Or the next town. Or the town after that. Not ‘less I feel like taking an Uber all the way to Broussard, and I’d rather not.” He studies the two glasses Spina’s set in front of them — cheap plastic, decorated with rainbow polka dots — thoughtfully. “But there’re bears in the woods, alligators in the bayous, and my _petit cousin_ Merriell once got a big cat for a guy. Kept him locked in our shed for almost a week.”

“That’s… insanely shady. You hear how that sounds, right?”

“This goin’ somewhere, Spina?” Gene asks, not half as exasperated as he tries to sound.

Spina leans far back, tilting the rickety wooden chair he’s sitting in until it touches the wall behind him. He’s got amazing confidence in a piece of furniture he obviously bought off the IKEA sales rack, and probably hammered together himself while cursing the instruction manual. He pulls the rim of his beanie down on his brow, still chuckling. “Alright,” he declares, “add it to the list.”

“List of what?”

“List of things we gotta do together while you’re in Philly. If you think bagels are that great —“

“I never had one before, Spina!” Breakfast this morning was an experience, but his friend doesn’t have to keep bringing it up. Gene comes from Louisiana, not Mars.

“The list,” Spina repeats, snapping his fingers. “Nah, buddy, you’re gonna love it. The Philly Zoo is great! Huge, and it’s got more animals than you could imagine — we almost lost Babe to the monkey enclosure once. The zookeepers took one look at ‘im and thought he belonged there!”

Now, Gene can’t help but smirk. “I really hope that’s a joke, but can’t be sure.”

Spina provides no enlightenment. “Right, so. The zoo, the karaoke bar, the IMAX —“

“I been to movies before, too.”

“But never to a movie with the screen so big it could suck you in and shit you out the other side. Hell, does your local theater even have reclining seats?”

Gene stays silent. Calling the furnishings in his hometown movie theater “seats” is a stretch; half of them will stab you with springs the moment you sit down. Spina says the movie theaters in Philly serve hot dogs, goddamn hot dogs, and cheese fries, and have a whole candy counter — “hell, the one at the corner of Franklin just got an open bar,” he declared, and Gene had almost had an aneurysm.

“You don’t plan on letting me sleep this whole trip, do you?” he asks instead, blinking mildly at his friend.

Spina grins, showing off the slight crookedness of his teeth. “A few hours, here and there. You might haveta be sneaky about it.”

“Some kinda human rights violation.”

Spina snorts, reaching over to take another sip of his drink. “I still can’t believe,” he declares, setting the colorful glass down on the counter, “you’ve never had ginger ale before.”

“I can’t believe you’ve never drank straight whiskey through a straw,” Gene replies, totally stonefaced. He lets it linger for a moment, taking his own sink of the oddly-flavored soft drink — no, he’s not a fan of Canada Dry — before chuckling softly. “Guess you could say we come from different worlds, Spina.”

“Never had pastrami, never had a hoagie, never had clam chowder or Italian ice… whatever your world looks like, I’m too scared to live there.”

“The spices alone would kill you.”

Say a lot about Spina, but at least the man knows how to take a joke. He sips his own drink again, chuckling. For a moment, they settle into companionable silence, just the two of them alone, Gene a thousand miles away from home.

When Spina stands suddenly, Gene’s gaze tears away from his polka-dot drinking glass. “Come on,” his friend says, nodding his head towards the doorway. “Got one more new thing on the agenda for today.”

Silently, Gene follows him out of the kitchen and down the narrow hall, past the half-open closet door and chip in the plaster that Spina swears his building owner’s gonna get fixed. He’s not sure where they’re headed, until they come into Spina’s crowded living room, and maneuver around couches and tables to the other side.

Spina pushes the balcony door open and grins. Gene hesitates, like any sane person would.

“I did not fly all the way up here to visit just so you could push me to my death thirteen stories up.”

“Come on, Gene.” Spina is fearless in the face of familiarity. He leans on the balcony railing without a care in the world, even if to Gene it looks flimsy as a toothpick. “In another life, you mighta been a paratrooper.”

“Call Other Life Me up, then, and leave me outta it.”

Spina doesn’t back down. Arm extended, he beckons to Gene, grasping for him… and maybe Gene’s just weak for people with trustworthy faces, and maybe Spina has the trustworthiest, because he gives in. One step, than another… and suddenly he’s standing on the balcony, looking down at sprawling Philadelphia below.

It’s not so bad, he realizes, once he’s looking down. Looking up would probably scare him more; at least looking down doesn’t seem so far away, actually being able to see the ground. Cars race by on crowded streets; pedestrians linger outside corner stores and diners; lights flicker and change, horns blare, and a police siren wails from the distance. The city sure is one hell of a place — more different from Bayou Chene, even from Baton Rouge or New Orleans, than Gene can comprehend. A different world, inhabited by a different sort of people… but beautiful, nonetheless.

“Never been this high up in my life,” he mutters. After a minute, he realizes he’s still gripping tight to Spina’s hand; a beat of hesitation passes before he releases it. His friend chuckles at his side, but Gene doesn’t feel mocked at all.

“Really something, huh buddy?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Gene mutters. In another life… he might have liked heights after all. “Really something to see.”


End file.
